POSTNET vs Intelligent Mail

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Legacy USPS POSTNET (ZIP+4 only) vs its replacement Intelligent Mail Barcode (tracking + routing). The IMb encodes more data and enables real-time mail tracking.


  

    POSTNET
    Intelligent Mail
  


  




  
  
  

    
Specification comparison

    

      

        POSTNET and Intelligent Mail specifications side by side
        
          

            Specification
            POSTNET
            Intelligent Mail
          

        
        
          
          

            Classification
            1D Linear
            1D Linear
          

          
          

            Symbology family
            Postal Family
            Postal Family
          

          
          

            Year introduced
            1983
            2009
          

          
          

            Developer
            United States Postal Service
            United States Postal Service
          

          
          

            Data length
            5, 9, or 11 digits
            65 bars (31-digit data string)
          

          
          

            Variable length
            No
            No
          

          
          

            Character set
            0-9
            0-9
          

          
          

            Maximum capacity
            11 numeric digits (delivery point)
            31 numeric digits encoded in 65 bars
          

          
          

            GS1 data carrier
            No
            No
          

          
          

            Unicode encoding
            No
            No
          

          
          

            Binary data
            No
            No
          

          
          

            Minimum X-dimension
            0.38 mm
            0.38 mm
          

          
          

            Nominal height
            3.175 mm
            3.68 mm
          

          
          

            Quiet zone
            3.175mm
            3.175mm
          

          
          

            Example payload
            123456789
            0123456709498765432101234567891
          

          
        
      

    

    
Highlighted rows mark specifications where the two symbologies differ.